2007 December | Lola Ya Bonobo

bonana!

Category: the sanctuary | Date: Dec 25 2007 | By: admin

coming up to xmas

Category: bonobos | Date: Dec 24 2007 | By: admin

Well the silly season’s arriving and I think it’s a good time to offer up a little prayer of thanks for Malou.

She was Claudine’s Christmas baby, because exactly two years ago an airport official at a x-ray machine at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris noticed something the size and shape of a small child stuffed into someone’s hand luggage. He detained the owner, who was on transit to Russia and unzipped the bag.

The creature inside was so wasted with dehydration, the official presumed it was dead. It looked so human, it could have been a child, but the official finally concluded it was a chimpanzee.

Malou was neither a child nor a chimpanzee. She was a five year old bonobo. Her mother had been shot and the humans who killed her were smuggling Malou out of the Democratic Republic of Congo to sell her as a pet in Eurasia. On the black market, a baby bonobo can sell for up to $60,000US.

By the time Malou got to Lola she was almost dead. Claudine was almost certain she wouldn’t make it. But on a wing and a prayer, Malou held onto life with all the strength in her bony little fingers, and now, two years later, she’s one of the most beautiful bonobos at Lola.

Generally, I’m not a fan of Christmas. Tackling shopping malls, waiting for hours in line, and never finding anything that anyone really wants, isn’t one of my favourite chores and tends to take up all my time. But I like to stop and think when I can, about the things that really matter, like the people we love, and how fortunate we are, and how every now and then, there’s a little Christmas miracle like Malou.

ps. all the Lo-lo fans will see how similar Malou looked to little Lomela when she first arrived. Lomela and Kata are in the nursery now, hopefully the photos will arrive soon - but i think they’re just keeping us all in suspense so that when we finally see little Lo, we’ll all be seriously and happily surprised:)

No responses yet

thank you

Category: the sanctuary | Date: Dec 14 2007 | By: admin

ok, i’m back after a little break. I’ve asked for updates so hopefully we shoudl have those soon on our 3 little survivors.

But first of all, I just got the list of donations and I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to these people:

Michael de Plater who donated $240, thank you so much.

Brigitta, who has set up a monthly $10 donation, Gary C, who donated $50, Lisa Hickey who donated $25, and Kaia G, who also donated $50.

I would also like to introduce Wilhelmabegleiter - a group of volunteers at the zoo “Wilhelma” in Stuttgart, Germany, which I think is just adorable. They’ve set up a donation of $70 a month.

I’ve just caught up on the comments, and the new bonobo reserve the Congo government is setting up is not the same one as Claudine is looking at. For the Lola bonobos, who have been habituated to humans, the site we need is really specific and will probably take a little longer to find.As to penalties for people capturing and selling bonbos, it’s hard for people like us to understnad how anyone could hurt such wonderful creatures. But the people of Congo have been through a lot, including a war where over 4 million people were killed. That’s more people killed than any war since WWII. It only ended in 2003, so the Congolese have an extremely vivid memory of what it was like to live with the threat of death around every corner.

So it’s hard for them to appreciate animal rights, even for bonobos, who are more like cousins.

I just wanted to share this photo, taken by my friend Charles Alexander, called ‘Gorilla Drawing for Sale’. (www.natureartists.com/artists/artist.asp?ArtistID=1273)

It breaks my heart every time I look into his eyes.